As fans of looking closely and spending quality time with images, it’s no wonder that the staff of an art history website loves doing jigsaw puzzles! Not only are puzzles fabulous tools for sharpening your visual acuity skills, but they also make a wonderful way to relax indoors on days when it’s too hot or too cold to be outside.
Here are some of the Sartle team’s favorite jigsaw puzzles for art history lovers that can keep you occupied all year round.
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1. Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel 2000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Few works of art reward close looking as much as Pieter Brueghel the Elder's paintings. With his tiny (and often humorous) details, there’s so much to enjoy in Bruegel’s worlds brimming with figures and activity. In this jigsaw featuring his 1560 painting Children’s Games, you’ll discover all those details anew! And at 2000 pieces, you’ll be kept busy for a looong time. - Jeannette
Find it on amazon here.
2. I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
I may just have a big soft spot in my heart for Charles Demuth's precisionist paintings, but this 1000-piece puzzle featuring I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold from the Met is just stunning! With those gorgeous intersecting planes of pure color, it provides just the right amount of challenge while still being interesting. - Jeannette
Find it at the Met store here.
3. Viva la Vida Frida Kahlo 1000-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
This adorable 1000-piece Frida Kahlo-themed puzzle comes in the dreamiest shades of pink and purple, but what I like most about it is all the little details about her life in the vignettes in the background. There are references to everything from her clothes and medical corsets, to her pets and travels, and specific paintings featuring her and Diego. The fact that this puzzle is made by a woman-owned business is just the icing on the cake! - Jeannette
Find it on amazon here.
4. Nighthawks by Edward Hopper 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Most people know the image of Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, but putting it back together via this high-quality puzzle truly allows you to appreciate the subtle details of this atmospheric painting, like faint gradations of colors and brushstrokes, which might go unnoticed on a laptop screen. Difficulty-wise, there's enough recognizable figures to guide the puzzler, but enough flat swathes with fewer elements to keep it challenging. - Angelica
Find it on amazon here.
5. Bridge and Waterlilies by Monet 1000-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
I love the concept of an Impressionist puzzle, like this one of Claude Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies from the Met. The puzzle format is perfect for Monet’s Impressionist painting technique, where a melange of smaller, separate brushstrokes and colors come together as a whole to form an idyllic scene. And what better daydream for when you're stuck inside than strolling past the water lilies in his famous garden at Giverny? - Angelica
Find it at the Met store here.
6. Convergence by Jackson Pollock 1000-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
When it comes to puzzles, I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment...but this whopper of a Jackson Pollock drip painting is positively daunting. Pollock's signature style of splashing overlapping lines of paint to create a tangled web means that you won't be able to strategize by color-coding the pieces. It's got a 5-star rating from over 100 other puzzle masochists, so join their ranks if you dare! - Angelica
Find it on amazon here.
7. Starry Night Petals 500-Piece Puzzle
Call me basic, but I love plants and Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, and this puzzle makes my heart happy by combining both of those things. This particular puzzle makes assembling simple for the whole family as it’s easy to sort pieces by color and plant type. And in my family, the fewer reasons for arguing the better! - Lauren
Find it on amazon here.
8. The Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
In early 2020, my husband and I were planning a trip to Italy with a solid two days to explore Vatican City when the pandemic hit. The Sistine Chapel is so big and this puzzle is, respectively, so small, that you’re going to need a magnifying glass to see the necessary details to put it together. Though we will likely go to Italy soon (fingers crossed!), inspecting tiny pieces of Michelangelo’s masterpiece will have to do for now. - Lauren
Find it on amazon here.
9. The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai 500-piece Jigsaw Puzzle
Aside from the Mona Lisa, I would say that Hokusai’s Under the Great Wave at Kanagawa is one of the most recognizable pieces of art of all time. It has been copied and parodied the world over appearing on mouse pads and book bags everywhere. The little fingers of the wave will be a pain to sort through, but oh so satisfying. - Lauren
Find it at the Met store here.
10. The Eclipse by Alma Thomas 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
As a lover of all things approved by the Obamas, Alma Thomas was quickly put on my radar when they added her work, Resurrection, to the White House Collection in 2015. Her colorful, abstract paintings were made for lovers of difficult puzzles. The color-blocked circles might make this type of puzzle seem easy, but with little shading, that orange piece could go anywhere. This puzzle will give you days worth of frustration, if you’re into that. - Lauren
Find it on amazon here.
Wishing you many moments of the pure satisfaction and inner ~piece~ only a puzzle can provide.
Editor